Nationwide, nearly 275,000 non-profits lost their tax exempt status. Of that group some 14,000 were in the state of Florida and 230 were in Alachua County. For the most part, they were organizations that had failed to file reurns or notices for three consecutive years. My experience is that first and greatest hurdle to becoming a non-profit is getting past the start up process. However, equally challenging is the hurdle of getting the taxes done each year. If you don’t have someone on the board that is an accountant, auditor or tax lawyer it will cost about $800 a year to get all the paperwork filed. Don’t file the paperwork and you loose your status. By the same token, not being able to show back filings and the organization loses a tremendous amount of appeal to donors. The paperwork is a minfield from codes to the IRS and any one of those groups could stop you cold.